Stop the 16 March marches in Riga!

Friday, 17 February 2017

Latvia has a Love-In with the SS!

A selection of
articles covering the SS Fest in Riga 16 March 2017-03-16

Around 2000 people attended the Waffen SS
Fest yesterday in Riga... Well done to the Latvian government for nourishing
and cherishing such a dismal affiliation, really good PR for an OSCE, NATO EU
country in the 21st century... The Belgians want to be remembered for their
chocolate, the Germans for their cars and the Latvians, well, the Latvians
REALLY want to be remembered for their Waffen SS ...

Dr. Efraim Zuroff the chief Nazi-hunter of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and director of the center’s Israel Office and Eastern European Affairs. His most recent book, written together with Ruta Vanagaite, Musiskiai: Kelione su Priesu (Our People: Journey With an Enemy), which deals with Lithuanian complicity in Holocaust crimes, was recently published in Lithuania and Poland and will appear in Hebrew (Yediot Aharonot) in late 2017.

Ever since the breakup of the Soviet Union slightly more than a quarter of a century ago, the role played by local Nazi collaborators in Holocaust crimes has been a bone of contention throughout eastern Europe. Rather than adopting the accepted Western chronicle of World War II and the Holocaust, local authorities in many Eastern European post-Communist countries have sought to create an alternative narrative of the events in order to achieve two major objectives.

The first objective is to hide, or at least minimize, the role played by local Nazi collaborators in the annihilation of European Jewry.

In this regard, it is important to note that only in Eastern Europe did assistance to the Nazis include active participation in mass murder. Although the Nazis’ local helpers throughout Europe were involved everywhere in the implementation of the initial stages of the Final Solution (which constitutes being an accessory to murder), only in the East, where a large percentage of the victims were shot to death near their homes rather than being deported to death camps in German-occupied Poland, were the collaborators fully integrated into the mass murder operations.

Thus, the Holocaust is not denied in countries such as Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Croatia and the Baltic states, but is portrayed as if it were almost exclusively the handiwork of Germans and Austrians, with little or no assistance from the local population. And in those few cases in which the guilt of local collaborators is acknowledged, they are often referred to as marginal or criminal elements of the local society.

The second objective is to convince world opinion that the crimes of the Soviet Union and its satellite Communist regimes were equally evil when compared to those of the Nazis, and that these crimes, too, constituted genocide. Historically inaccurate, the canard of equivalency is politically of central importance to certain quarters in Eastern and Central Europe where, by claiming to be victims of the worst crime imaginable, they seek to deflect or avoid painful discussions about local participation by their nationals in Holocaust crimes.

In October
2014, in his capacity as Latvian foreign ministry spokesman Eihenbaums told AFP
in response to Latvia hitting a low
note in its musical history, after Latvian theatres staged a musical heralding mass murderer and member of the notorious Arajs
Kommando Herbert Cukurs as a hero, ”It’s totally unacceptable to portray people
like this as heroes,” But
he added that while Latvia “has consistently condemned war crimes”, as a
democracy it supports freedom of speech. !

Interesting that free speech
did not extend itself to the protesters who at the opening night of the musicalwere according to Dr Efraim
Zuroff , chief Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre moved
away by police.The same treatment was
given to protesters at the SS fest last year, 5 German protesters were arrested on arrival at
the airport and this year peaceful protesters were forced to stand in a pit behind the bridge over the canal.Free
speech?

The Latvian government must truly think
that its allies in the EU, NATO and OSCE are completely stupid however,they would be wise to remember that

You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you
cannot fool all the people all the time.

In the meantime the Latvian government has been busy producing a propaganda page AND 14 page document justifying the Waffen SS fest tomorrow! Clearly, truth is for the Latvian government what one can get away with. See 'In a special informational material, historians explain 16 March'...

In previous years on March 16th, 2013 and 2012 more than 2,500 people, amongst them Latvian politicians, paid tribute to Latvians who fought on the side of Nazi Germany in Waffen SS detachments during World War II. In 2011 the Latvian Prime Minister told local media that he did not think March 16th had ,“a special significance.”Legionnaires’ Day is used by radicals on both sides, “to confront each other” . In 2012, the Latvian president, President Berzins stated that it is ridiculous to see Latvian SS veterans as criminals, rather we should 'bow our heads to them'! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2108789/Youre-trying-justify-crimes-Nazis-Russias-fury-neighbour-Latvia-plans-hold-rally-commemorate-SS.html. In the same year those attending the march desecrated the wreath to the victims of Nazism. In 2013 two politicians attending the march attacked protesters and a photo of Robert Ancans SS Obersturmfuehrer was honoured at the base of the monument of freedom. In 2014 protesters from Berlin under Dr Hans Coppi VVN and Dr Efraim Zuroff from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Jerusalem protested at the march, under heavy security their voices were virtually silenced. In 2015 Dr Efraim Zuroff and Defendinghistory.com monitored the march and their protests were heard by the world's press ( see media list at

Latvia, the international community, the UK government, the European Union and NATO should condemn the Nazi event in clearer terms, as Waffen SS veterans are not seen as legitimate “heroes” in any EU member state which Latvia has been granted status since 2004. (see Report on Latviaby the ECRI (European Commission Against Racism and

See Salford City Radio 94.4FM, Interview in 2013 with Monica Lowenberg speaking about her trip to Latvia and the annual SS march. Interview accompanied with a photo reportage of the 2013 March 16 SS march.

Another shocking video where British journalist Graham Phillips asks Estonian politician Jaak Madison if he is not ashamed to be attending a fascist march and is then subsequently arrested and dumped into a policevan to the amusement of the crowd

Already in a press release 16.03.1999 the Simon Wiesenthal centre in Jerusalem condemned the march of the legionaries and

stated, ‘although these units were not involved in crimes against humanity, many of their soldiers had previously served in the Latvian security police and had actively participated in the mass murder of civilians, primarily Jews...The stubborn insistence of Latvia’s SS Legion veterans to conduct a public march to glorify their role as combatants on behalf of the Third Reich is a clear indication that many Latvians have still not internalised the lessons of WWII... not one of the numerous Latvian killers who collaborated with the Nazis has been brought to justice since Latvia obtained its independence, far too many Latvians feel free to identify with those who fought alongside the perpetrators of the Holocaust rather than with its victims’.

On 16 March, as in previous years since 1991, in the Latvian capital of Riga and after a Lutheran church service, an honorary march and flag-lined rally will take place at the Freedom Monument to honour Latvian units of the Waffen-SS.

Latvia like Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Bulgaria is one of the Eastern European states where units of the Waffen-SS and other anti-Semitic death squads who collaborated with the Nazis are celebrated today as national heroes. This is done with tacit consent of the state and partial support from authorities.

The 'March of Honour' in Riga is an unprecedented provocation towards relatives of victims of the Latvian police and SS associations and the Jewish, Russian-speaking and other minorities in the country. The march is not only in conflict with the fundamental values ​​of the European Union, whose advantages the Latvian state likes to accept, but is also a provocation against the Russian Federation and thus a threat to peace in Europe.

In Latvia, anti-fascist demonstrators are exposed to considerable reprisals (telephone monitoring, travel restrictions, administrative chicanery, police, state influence on hotels and event organisers). This also applies to supporters who come from Germany and other countries.

It is therefore all the more important to show solidarity with the Latvian antifascists in 2017. The VVN-BdA and the member federations of the International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) call for a trip to Riga to participate in the anti-fascist demonstration on 16 March.

At the same time the protest organisers call for protests against the glorification of Nazi collaborators and mass murderers and freedom for Latvia's anti-fascists to take place on 15 March outside Latvian embassies and consulates in the European cities of:

Rome, Brussels, Budapest and Athens

The VVN-BdA also calls for vigils in front of the Latvian Embassy and the Honorary consulates in:

Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf

We demand:

An end to the glorification of Nazi collaborators and murderers!

Recognition of Baltic participation in the Nazi genocide!

Freedom for "Latvia without Nazism"!

We call for protest messages to be presented to Latvian Embassy and Latvian consulates on the 15th of March!

From Budapest to Lisbon international protests took place 15 March 2017 infront of Latvian embassies. Over 100 people protested in Athens alone stating in clear terms:

RESOLUTION FOR THE RALLY OF PEAEA-DSE IN FRONT OF THE LATVIAN EMBASSY IN ATHENS To the President of the Republic of Latvia Mister President, We vehemently protest in the name of the thousands of our members, Resistance fighters of WW2, their descendants and their friends, against the state support and facilitation you give to the Neo-nazis and their descendants who have the impudence to “honor” the Nazi criminals-murderers and the Latvian Waffen-SS with their rally and march in Riga planned for March 16, 2017. Respect for the Memory of tenths of millions victims of the Nazis and their collaborators makes it necessary to ban and to isolate those who “praise and honor” such beasts in human disguise calling them “liberators” in contrast with the real historical facts. It is evident that whoever identifies himself in any way with those scums, identifies himself, too, with their criminal atrocities and as such they will remain in history. We want to denounce the EU which in the Balkan countries and in other member-states as well, tolerates, reinforces and supports governments that endorse such ideas. The Hitler-fascists, the Nazi, the Waffen-SS and their collaborators have been condemned for ever and irrevocably in the consciousness of the Peoples. We demand that you stop in any possible manner the fascist rally and the march of the eulogists of the Nazi and of the Latvian Waffen-SS. Athens, March 15, 2017

Photo reportage covering all three Baltic Neo-Nazi marches this year. The reportage is accompanied by an interview with Dr Efraim Zuroff on Salford City Radio, 24 March 2014 and MEP Richard Howitt's speech condemning the SS march in Riga, read out on Salford City radio station,17 March 2014.

In chronological order since
launching petition Stop the 16 March
marches in Riga , 20 January, 2012.

Latvia

·Latvia: A personal march through historyhttp://www.ajr.org.uk/journalpdf/2012_April.pdfpublished in the AJR Journal (Association of
Jewish Refugees, UK), Volume 12, April 2012 page 4 by Monica Lowenbergalso published by Second Generation Network,
VoicesMay 2012

·Latvia’s difficult legacyWhat is March 16th?by Monica Lowenbergpublished by the Holocaust Educational Trust
and Second Generation Network, VoicesApril 2012

by the ECRI calling a halt to
all forms of Nazi glorification February 21,2012:

In the
framework of its statutory activities, ECRI conducts country-by-country
monitoring work, which analyses the situation in each of the member States
regarding racism and intolerance and draws up suggestions and proposals for
dealing with the problems identified. In the report on Latvia published on
February 21, 2012 ECRI expresses concern as regards the authorisation of certain
public events to commemorate two incidents and the authorities’ reaction in
this connection. As concerns the first incident, every year, on 16 March, a
gathering commemorating soldiers who fought in a Latvian unit of the Waffen SS
is held in the centre of Riga. In this connection, ECRI regrets that, in spring
2010, an administrative district court overruled a decision of the Riga City
Council 27 prohibiting this march. Moreover, ECRI is concerned that the speaker
of the Latvian Parliament allegedly publicly expressed regret for the formal
prohibition of this event and that certain MPs have voted for the restoration
of March 16 as day of remembrance.